Been a baseball fan since the 50s and every commissioner I have read about, save for maybe Bart Giamatti who sadly died of a heart attack after only 154 days as commissioner has been disliked by the average fan. Goes with the Territory I guess.
Giamatti was commissioner on August 24, 1989 when Pete Rose voluntarily agreed to permanent ineligibility from baseball. As reflected in the agreement with Pete Rose, Giamatti was determined to maintain the integrity of the game during his brief commissioner-ship.
Jay Vincent who inherited the job under difficult circumstances when Giamatti suddenly passed was never liked by the owners. He was forced out of his five year term early due to his relationship with baseball's owners. The relationship was always tenuous at best; he resigned in 1992 after the owners gave him an 18–9 no confidence vote. The owners were still angry at Vincent over his intervention during the 1990 lockout among other matters such as the TV revenue in both leagues decreasing at the time. Vincent was against the DH and determined to keep Pete Rose out of the HOF.
Selig being part of the family the owns the Milwaukee Brewers will never live that down. Selig oversaw baseball through the 1994 strike, the introduction of the wild card, interleague play, and the merging of the National and American leagues under the Office of the Commissioner. He was instrumental in organizing the World Baseball Classic in 2006.
He also introduced revenue sharing. He is credited for the financial turnaround of baseball during his tenure with a 400 percent increase in the revenue of MLB and annual record breaking attendance.
Selig enjoys a high level of support from baseball owners, which in the public's eye is a bad thing. He has been widely decried by both the MLB Players' Union for his policies and by the general public for presiding over the game during one of its most contentious periods (The steroid controversy).
Jerome Holtzman, Major League Baseball's official historian from 1999 until his passing in 2008, believed that Selig was the best commissioner in baseball history.
INO - How can he be bad for baseball - when he devoted his life to the game. Baseball is no different than the other major sports in the US. Name me a popular commissioner in any of the 4 major sports. Fans simply do not like The Commish no matter who he is.
wil.
Giamatti was commissioner on August 24, 1989 when Pete Rose voluntarily agreed to permanent ineligibility from baseball. As reflected in the agreement with Pete Rose, Giamatti was determined to maintain the integrity of the game during his brief commissioner-ship.
Jay Vincent who inherited the job under difficult circumstances when Giamatti suddenly passed was never liked by the owners. He was forced out of his five year term early due to his relationship with baseball's owners. The relationship was always tenuous at best; he resigned in 1992 after the owners gave him an 18–9 no confidence vote. The owners were still angry at Vincent over his intervention during the 1990 lockout among other matters such as the TV revenue in both leagues decreasing at the time. Vincent was against the DH and determined to keep Pete Rose out of the HOF.
Selig being part of the family the owns the Milwaukee Brewers will never live that down. Selig oversaw baseball through the 1994 strike, the introduction of the wild card, interleague play, and the merging of the National and American leagues under the Office of the Commissioner. He was instrumental in organizing the World Baseball Classic in 2006.
He also introduced revenue sharing. He is credited for the financial turnaround of baseball during his tenure with a 400 percent increase in the revenue of MLB and annual record breaking attendance.
Selig enjoys a high level of support from baseball owners, which in the public's eye is a bad thing. He has been widely decried by both the MLB Players' Union for his policies and by the general public for presiding over the game during one of its most contentious periods (The steroid controversy).
Jerome Holtzman, Major League Baseball's official historian from 1999 until his passing in 2008, believed that Selig was the best commissioner in baseball history.
INO - How can he be bad for baseball - when he devoted his life to the game. Baseball is no different than the other major sports in the US. Name me a popular commissioner in any of the 4 major sports. Fans simply do not like The Commish no matter who he is.
wil.
He is terrible for baseball, replay should've been expanded already, now that history has been denied to galaragga, he's say's he'll take a look at. At least award the guy his perfect game you idiot, how dumb is he????????.. Selig is a worse than David "fix the game" Stern, now that's saying something.. Get this idiot outta baseball
Kudos to the commissioner for not changing the outcome and setting a terrible precedent in baseball. Why doesn't anybody talk about how the umpires could have changed the call at the end? Joyce could have said that he thought he pulled his foot, the home plate umpire would have said he didn't, and we'd have the perfect game Gallaragga deserved. Don't blame the commissioner for horrible umpiring by the whole crew.
Drugs are the perfect example of how everyone else is at fault just as much as Selig. Steroids were first used to improve performance in the 50s, they were banned in other sports in the 60s, tested for in the 70s, Canseco introduced them to baseball in the 80s, by the 90s known drug users were inducted into the Hall-of-Fame, along with heavily muscled athletes throwing fastballs and hitting homeruns. Yet in that entire history, covering decades, neither players, owners, media or fans ever asked for baseball to ban them. If any of those groups really cared, they would have demanded drug testing and suspensions long before 2004. Yet they all chose accept them for so long
Jenkins, Cepeda, Molitor. Probably others, but those are the known ones
McGwire is better than all three, Raines extremely close, Hernandez was better than Cepeda
Cepeda was put in by the veterans committee, which has never maintained any sort of standards. But it's also made up of former players and if they had no problem with drugs in 1999, but now do, it says a lot. . .
McGwire is better than all three, Raines extremely close, Hernandez was better than Cepeda
Cepeda was put in by the veterans committee, which has never maintained any sort of standards. But it's also made up of former players and if they had no problem with drugs in 1999, but now do, it says a lot. . .
